Eight months after the United States enters World War I on behalf of the Allies, President Woodrow Wilson announces the nationalization of a large majority of the country’s railroads under the Federal Possession and Control Act.

The U.S. entry into the war in April 1917 coincided with a downturn in the fortunes of the nation’s railroads: rising taxes and operations costs, combined with prices that were fixed by law, had pushed many railroad companies into receivership as early as late 1915. A year later, in a last-minute bill passed through Congress, Wilson had forced the railroad management to accept union demands for an eight-hour work day. Still, many skilled workers were leaving the cash-poor railroads to work in the booming armaments industry or to enlist in the war effort.

By the end of 1917, it seemed that the existing railroad system was not up to the task of supporting the war effort and Wilson decided on nationalization. Two days after his announcement, the United States Railroad Administration (USRA) seized control. William McAdoo, Wilson’s secretary of the treasury, was appointed Director General of Railroads. The railroads were subsequently divided into three divisions—East, West and South. Passenger services were streamlined, eliminating a significant amount of inessential travel. Over 100,000 new railroad cars and 1,930 steam engines were ordered--designed to the latest standards--at a total cost of $380 million.

In March 1918, the Railroad Control Act was passed into law. It stated that within 21 months of a peace treaty, the railroads would be returned by the government to their owners and that the latter would be compensated for the usage of their property. Consequently, the USRA was disbanded two years later, in March 1920, and the railroads became private property once again.
historychannel.com_________________Met hart en ziel
De enige echte

Note: those units that were under command of the Divisions and Brigades shown but do not appear in the table did not take part in fraternisation, often because they were in billets and out of the front line at the time. The list has been compiled by reference to war diaries, soldiers letters, reports, etc.

List of German units which took part in the truce

6th Bavarian Reserve Division, facing Kemmel

12th Bavarian Reserve Brigade Brigade
17th Bavarian Reserve Regiment

40th Division, facing Wulverghem and Ploegsteert Wood and at Frelinghien

"On Boxing Day we walked up to the village of St. Yvon where the observation post was. I soon discovered that places where we were usually shot at were quite safe. There were the two sets of front trenches only a few yards apart, and yet there were soldiers, both British and German, standing on top of them, digging or repairing the trench in some way, without ever shooting at each other. It was an extraordinary situation. In the sunken road I met an officer I knew, and we walked along together so that we could look across to the German front line, which was only about seventy yards away. One of the Germans waved to us and said, "Come over here!" We said, "You come over here if you want to talk." So he climbed out of his trench and came over towards us. We met and very gravely saluted each other. He was joined by more Germans, and some of the Dublin Fusiliers from our own trenches came over to join us. No German officer came out, it was only the ordinary soldiers. We talked, mainly in French, because my German was not very good and none of the Germans could speak English well. But we managed to get together all right. One of them said, "We don't want to kill you and you don't want to kill us, so why shoot?"

They gave me some German tobacco and German cigars - they seemed to have plenty of those, and very good ones too - and they asked whether we had any jam. One of the Dublin Fusiliers got a tin of jam which had been opened, but very little taken out, and he gave it to a German who gave him two cigars for it. I lined them all up and took a photograph"

http://www.fylde.demon.co.uk/xmas.htm_________________
“I hope you live a life you are proud of. If you find that you are not, l hope you have the strength to start all over again.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Reader Andy Callan tells how his grandad was one of the first to greet his German counterpart in a WWI Christmas Day truce.

WHAT MY GRANDAD DID

My grandfather was one of the first British soldiers to leave the trenches and fraternise with a German on the Christmas Day truce in 1914.

At least, he was the first man out of the trenches on his section of the front that was held by the 2nd battalion the Royal Welch Fusiliers (a famous unit, which included Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves among its officers).

My grandfather never spoke of the war, but two years ago, I came across a book in the local Oxfam - The War the Infantry Knew, by J C Dunn, a minor classic, which chronicles in great detail the doings of this battalion from 1914 to 1919.

So I looked up his name in the index, and there he was. One entry for Private Ike Sawyer: "December 25, 1914. Our pioneer sergeant, Nobby Hall, made a screen and painted on it 'A Merry Christmas', which we hoisted on Christmas morning. No shots were fired.

"On the left we could see that our fellows were carrying their breakfast in the open, and everything was quiet. Both sides got a bit venturous and looked over the top.

"Then a German started to walk down the towpath towards our lines and Ike Sawyer went to meet him. The German handed over a box of cigars."

The Germans later rolled over a barrel of beer for the British troops, and were given a plum pudding in return. I think I know who got the better deal.

HOW I FIRST HEARD THIS STORY

Like many veterans, he never talked about the war. Nobody in the family had heard this story until I came across it, quite by chance, in this book.
The Christmas truce was very much an initiative of the troops on the ground; it's possible that he felt that leaving the trench was an insubordinate thing to do, and that's why he never talked about it.

INFLUENCE HE HAD ON ME

My grandfather died when I was two. I don't remember meeting him, although undoubtedly I did.
He was a survivor and a lucky man, traits I think I've inherited. He survived the Great War, and became a stalwart of the Birmingham branch of the veterans' group, the Old Contemptibles.

He also raised a family of seven children, one of whom was my mother. His wife died in the 1930s, and as happened in those days, the children were farmed out to assorted aunts and uncles. Nevertheless, he was always there for them.

On Christmas Day, 1914, during the First World War temporary truces occured all along the frontline. These were usually instigated by the German troops through messages or by the singing of carols. The truces involved the exchange of food and souvenirs, but also allowed the grim task of the retrieval and burial dead bodies out between the lines. The truces were seen as 'unwarlike' by those in command and were discouraged in later years.

John Wedderburn-Maxwell, a British Officer who served with 45th, 1st and 36th Batteries, Royal Field Artillery on the Western Front 1914 - 1918, recalls his 'fraternisation' with German soldiers on Boxing Day 1914. They discussed conditions in the trenches and the futility of the war. Wedderburn-Maxwell mentions the famous football match in No Man's Land between German and British troops, although he recalls that the ground was far too uneven for such a game in his part of the front. At midnight on Boxing Day they returned to the 'job of war', signalled with a round of artillery fire from the British.

There was a party, oh a couple of hundred yards away, of our troops and the Germans all fraternizing. And so I said: "Right, I'm going to go outside and have a look at this". And I told the infantry to keep an eye on me, in case anyone tried any rough housing so they'd know what was happening. And I went up and I met a small party who said, "Come along into our trenches and have a look at us" and I said, "No, I'm quite near enough as it is!". And we laughed and we chaffed each other and I gave them some English tobacco and they gave me some German - I forget what it was - and we walked about for about half an hour in No Man's Land. And then we shook hands, wished each other luck, and one fellow said: "Will you send this off to my girlfriend in Manchester?". And so I took his letter, and I franked it and sent it off to his girlfriend in Manchester when I got back.

The camaraderie for a short time spread. On Christmas Day, thousands of unarmed men from both sides again emerged from the trenches, having agreed to use the daylight to collect their dead. This time, the enemy soldiers swapped pieces of equipment and parts of their uniforms. Many shared photographs of their families and took pictures of themselves with their new friends. “We are at any rate having another truce on New Year’s Day,” Lt. Dougan Chater of the 2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, wrote in a letter, “as the Germans want to see how the photos come out.” In some places, combatants even played soccer with makeshift balls.

The truce was pretty widespread. Where Britons faced Germans, more than two-thirds of the troops made temporary peace. On the Eastern Front, one group of Austrians and Russians reportedly played leapfrog with one another. The French and Belgians were far less charitable; the Hun, after all, had viciously invaded their homeland. So some French officers defiantly ordered attacks on Christmas Day. “We opened rapid fire on them,” wrote one captain, “which is the only sort of truce they deserve.” Yet in most places, the sound of gunfire was replaced by the sounds of Christmas.

The Commanders of both sides were not very happy about the truce. When word got back to them, they were appalled. On Boxing Day (Dec. 26), British Gen. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien ordered that “on no account is intercourse to be allowed between the opposing troops.” On Dec. 29, the German High Command forbade all fraternization, warning that it would be punished as high treason. So with great reluctance, the troops said goodbye and ambled back to their trenches, dreading what was to come. Though many had fantasized that their gestures might lead to an armistice, they knew it was a futile dream. In some cases, a single shot on Dec. 26 was enough to get the war going again.

http://www.wjpbr.com/wwixmas.html_________________
“I hope you live a life you are proud of. If you find that you are not, l hope you have the strength to start all over again.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Old friend, can you remember the tiny lights that sprung up over no man’s land? And how without a signal, we threw down our weary arms and how without a second thought we stood and ran.

Old friend, can you remember the frozen muddy wasteland suddenly pristine? For the first and last time ever, I could hear myself think over the grinding voice of the machine.

Corporals translated our delight as Christmas Day turned into night. With laughter on our tongues where there’d been only orders and screams. We danced along the bodies like children in a dream.

Old friend, can you forgive me? The Pidgin English promises I’ll never keep. Christmas Eves that I spent drinking at my writing desk and Christmas mornings my children watched their father weep.

And nothing I’ve done since has felt as real as the first step I took across that frozen field. When we said our last goodbyes, I can’t remember who blinked first, but I can see your face as clearly as I read this scribbled curse, this scribbled address that I hid away in shame.

Long after we had found out
All the slaughtered soldiers’ names,
Can you forgive me my old friend?
I picked my rifle up again on Boxing Day

http://warhistorian.org/wordpress/?p=2129_________________
“I hope you live a life you are proud of. If you find that you are not, l hope you have the strength to start all over again.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

The enemy came out of their trenches yesterday (being Christmas Day) simultaneously with our fellows - who met the Germans on neutral ground between the two trenches and exchanged the compliments of the season - presents, smokes and drinks - some of our fellows going into the German lines and some of the Germans strolling into ours - the whole affair was particularly friendly and not a shot was fired in our Brigade throughout the day. The enemy apparently initiated the move by shouting across to our fellows and then popping their heads out of their trenches and finally getting out of them altogether.

First Army - Formed in France on 26 December 1914, initially under the command of Sir Douglas Haig. Remained on the Western Front, coming under the command of Sir Henry Horne when haig was promoted to Commander in Chief in late 1915.

Second Army - Formed in France on 26 December 1914, initially under the command of Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien. Later under the command of Sir Herbert Plumer, the Army moved to Italy between 13 November 1917 and 17 March 1918. Other than this period, Second Army was always associated with the Ypres Salient.

http://www.1914-1918.net/armies.htm_________________
“I hope you live a life you are proud of. If you find that you are not, l hope you have the strength to start all over again.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Wilson [...] turned his attention to British encroachments against neutral trade with Germany and Austria-Hungary (the Central Powers). He first tried to persuade the British to adhere to the Declaration of London of 1909, which purported to codify existing international law and was extremely protective of neutral commerce. But the British were determined to use their overwhelming sea power to cut Germany off from life-giving supplies, and Wilson had no recourse but to fall back upon ambiguous international law to protect American trading rights. This he did in a note to the British Foreign Office on 26 December 1914.

“Perhaps it will surprise you to learn that the soldiers in both lines of trenches have become very ‘pally’ with each other. The trenches are only 60 yards apart at one place, and every morning about breakfast time one of the soldiers sticks a board in the air. As soon as this board goes up all firing ceases, and men from either side draw their water and rations. All through the breakfast hour, and so long as this board is up, silence reigns supreme, but whenever the board comes down the first unlucky devil who shows even so much as a hand gets a bullet through it.”

Alvin O. Lombard of Penobscot County, Maine, produced and sold the first engine with crawler tracks in May 1901.

A British army officer, Colonel Ernest Swinton, and the Secretary of the Committee for Imperial Defence, Maurice Hankey, remained enthusiastic about what they believed to be the enormous potential of the tank, not least in breaking through enemy trench defences.

While Hankey produced the first official memo concerning the tank (in a memorandum on 'special devices') on 26 December 1914, it was Swinton who organised a demonstration of the Killen-Strait vehicle to senior politicians in June 1915 - almost a year after the war was underway.

On 26 December 1915, while waiting at Brighton for Roland to arrive home on leave, Vera learned that he had been killed in France by a German sniper. She was working in the hospital in Camberwell when Edward, who had received his long-awaited commission in 1916, arrived to recover from wounds received on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. In September Vera was given her first foreign posting in Malta. While there she learned of the death of another close friend, Geoffrey Thurlow, and of the blinding of Victor Richardson at the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

Having earlier in the year resisted the Austro-Hungarian offensive at Asiago, the Italian Army in early August resumed their seemingly unending offensive along the Isonzo - in this case the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo (also known as the Battle of Gorizia). The Italian attack this time was directed at the capture of Gorizia.

With the Austro-Hungarian lines depleted following their concerted attack earlier in the year (whereas Italian Commander-in-Chief Luigi Cadorna had made efficient use of railways to quickly ferry his own troops back to the Isonzo) and with the additional need to defend against the Russian Brusilov Offensive in the east, Gorizia fell and the Italians succeeded in establishing a bridgehead at last across the Isonzo.

Reproduced below is Cadorna's summary account of the battle.

Official Report by Commander-in-Chief Luigi Cadorna, 26 December 1916

In the spring we sustained in the Trentino the powerful, long-prepared Austrian offensive, which the enemy with insolent effrontery styled a punitive expedition against our country.

But after the first successes, which were due to the preponderance of material means collected, above all in artillery, the proposed invasion was quickly stopped and the enemy was counter-attacked and forced to retire in haste into the mountains, leaving on the Alpine slopes the flower of his army and paying bitterly the price for his fallacious enterprise not only here but also on the plains of Galicia.

Our army did not rest after its wonderful effort. While maintaining a vigorous pressure on the Trentino front, in order to gain better positions and to deceive the enemy as to our intentions, a rapid retransfer of strong forces to the Julian front was made.

In the first days of August began that irresistible offensive which, in two days only, caused the fall of the very strong fortress of Gorizia and of the formidable system of defences on the Carso to the west of the Vallone.

Doberdo, San Michele, Sabotino - names recalling sanguinary struggles and slaughter - ceased to be for the Austro-Hungarian Army the symbols of a resistance vaunted insuperable, and became the emblems of brilliant Italian victories. The enemy's boastful assertions of having inexorably arrested our invasion on the front selected and desired by himself were refuted at one stroke.

From that day our advance on the Carso was developed constantly and irresistibly. It was interrupted by pauses indispensable for the preparation of the mechanical means of destruction without which the bravest attacks would lead only to the vain sacrifice of precious human lives.

Our constant and full success on the Julian front is witnessed by 42,000 prisoners, 60 guns, 200 machine guns, and the rich spammer taken between the beginning of August and December.

Also on the rest of the front our indefatigable troops roused the admiration of all who saw them for their extraordinary efforts to overcome not only the forces of the enemy but also the difficulties of nature.

Our soldiers are supported by the unanimous approval of the nation, by faith in themselves and in the justice of their cause. They face willingly their hard and perilous life, under the guidance of their beloved sovereign, who from the first day of the war with a rare constancy has shared their fortunes.

Our army is waiting in perfect readiness to renew the effort which will carry it to the fulfilment of the unfailing destiny of our people.

Source Records of the Great War, Vol. IV, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni 1923, http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/gorizia_cadorna.htm_________________
“I hope you live a life you are proud of. If you find that you are not, l hope you have the strength to start all over again.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Private William Dalton Lycett, 2063, of the 4th Field Ambulance A.I.F. enlisted on 12th September 1914, he embarked on the 22nd December 1914 at Melbourne on the H.M.A.T. “Berrima”.

Tuesday 26th December, 1916 - Stayed in bed again till 12 noon, still raining and cold, mud very rotten and boots wet through. Big lot of men losing their voices. On duty 2 p.m., did dressings etc. and various odd jobs till tea time 5 p.m. Only six patients today, having evacuated some to C.C.S. After tea some of boys went to concert in village. Stayed behind and had game of bridge then wrote letters till turned in at 9 p.m. A.D.M.S. inspected our billet today, all correct.

I went up the steep way, through the little gate I showed you, after I left you. I could cry that way; I simply had to a little, you know. Then I leaned against the ivy wall and looked through tree twigs into the mist; and I tried to pray in silence, just getting near to God and to you and to everything. I don't think I did it very well, but I feel wonderfully soothed and better.

(...) Efforts were made before the United States entered the war to further tighten government control of radio. These were prompted in part by concerns about the dominance of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, a subsidiary of the British Marconi Company. By November 1916, draft legislation was under discussion that would allow government stations to handle commercial traffic, would permit the Navy to buy existing coastal radio stations, restricted the frequency range of commercial stations, limited the number of shore stations that would be licensed, and prohibited the upgrade of equipment in existing commercial shore stations, a rather draconian proposal it would seem. Marconi and other private interests saw this, now without reason, as an effort to push them out of the radio business. The legislation was introduced in Congress and became known as the Alexander Bill. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, confirming the suspicions of American Marconi, flatly stated in a letter of 26 December 1916 that his aim and that of the bill was to eliminate commercial interests from ship-to-shore radio communications. He recommended that Congress purchase all existing commercial stations in the United States and that no additional stations be licensed. "He based his actions upon the necessity of eliminating interferences, duplications of efforts, and unsatisfactory radio discipline," although one would think that Daniels, an ardent Progressive, was motivated largely by suspicion of big business. (...)

With reference to the esteemed communication of December 21,
Foreign Office No. 15118, the undersigned has the honor to reply as
follows: To His Excellency the Ambassador of the United States of
America, Mr. James W. Gerard.

The Imperial Government has accepted and considered in the
friendly spirit which is apparent in the communication of the Presi-
dent, noble initiative of the President looking to the creation of bases
for the foundation of a lasting peace. The President discloses the
aim which lies next to his heart and leaves the choice of the way open.
A direct exchange of views appears to the Imperial Government as the
most suitable way of arriving at the desired result. The Imperial
Government has the honor, therefore, in the sense of its declaration of
the 12th instant, which offered the hand for peace negotiations, to pro-
pose the speedy assembly, on neutral ground, of delegates of the
warring States.

It is also the view of the Imperial Government that the great work
for the prevention of future wars can first be taken up only after the
ending of the present conflict of exhaustion. The Imperial Govern-
ment is ready, when this point has been reached, to cooperate with
the United States at this sublime task.

The undersigned, while permitting himself to have recourse to
good offices of his Excellency the Ambassador in connection with the
transmission of the above reply to the President of the United States,
avails himself of this opportunity to renew the assurances of his
highest consideration.

ZIMMERMANN.

http://www.questia.com/read/3552157_________________
“I hope you live a life you are proud of. If you find that you are not, l hope you have the strength to start all over again.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN REPLY TO PRESIDENT WILSON'S
PEACE NOTE, December 26, 1916

In reply to the aide memoire communicated on the 22d instant
by his Excellency the American Ambassador, containing the proposals
of the President of the United States of America for an exchange of
views among the Powers at present at war for the eventual establish-
ment of peace, the Imperial and Royal Government desires particularly
to point out that in considering the noble proposal of the President it
is guided by the same spirit of amity and complaisance as finds
expression therein.

The President desires to establish a basis for a lasting peace with-
out wishing to indicate the ways and means. The Imperial and Royal
Government considers a direct exchange of views among the bellige-
rents to be the most suitable way of attaining this end. Adverting to
its declaration of the 12th instant, in which it announced its readiness
to enter into peace negotiations, it now has the honor to propose that
representatives of the belligerent Powers convene at an early date at
some place on neutral ground.

The Imperial and Royal Government likewise concurs in the opin-
ion of the President that only after the termination of the present
war will it be possible to undertake the great and desirable work of the
prevention of future wars. At an appropriate time it will be willing
to cooperate with the United States of America for the realization of
this noble aim.

http://www.questia.com/read/3552157_________________
“I hope you live a life you are proud of. If you find that you are not, l hope you have the strength to start all over again.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

MR. AMBASSADOR: In reply to the note which your Excellency
was pleased to deliver to me under date of the twenty-third instant,
number 2107, containing certain suggestions of the President of the
United States, I have the honor to communicate to your Excellency
the following:

The generous initiative of the President, tending to create bases
for the reestablishment of peace, has been received and taken into
consideration by the Imperial Ottoman Government in the same friendly
obliging (?) which manifests itself in the President's communication.
The President indicates the object which he has at heart and leaves
open the choice of that path leading to this object. The Imperial
Government considers a direct exchange of ideas as the most effica-
cious means of attaining the desired result.

In conformity with its declaration of the twelfth of this month, in
which it stretched forth its hand for peace negotiations, the Imperial
Government has the honor of proposing the immediate meeting, in a
neutral country, of delegates of the belligerent Powers.

The Imperial Government is likewise of opinion that the great
work of preventing future wars can only be commenced after the
end of the present struggle between the nations. When this moment
shall have arrived the Imperial Government will be pleased to collab-
orate with the United States of America and with the other neutral
Powers in this sublime task.

(Signed) HALIL.

http://www.questia.com/read/3552157_________________
“I hope you live a life you are proud of. If you find that you are not, l hope you have the strength to start all over again.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

The defence of Jerusalem, 26-30 December 1917, was the last significant action during the British invasion of Palestine in 1917. Jerusalem had fallen on 9 December, but the British line north of the city was rather ragged. General Allenby decided to mount one further offensive, with the aim of pushing the Turks back to a line ten miles north of the city, running from Beitin to Nalin. This would then join up with the right flank of XXI corps, on the coastal plains.

The Turks were also planning an offensive. Fresh troops had been found to make an attempt to recover Jerusalem (amongst them the Turkish 1st Division), and an attack was planned for the night of 26/27 December. The British offensive, planned for 24 December, had to be postponed due to poor weather. The British then intercepted a Turkish radio message and learnt of the planned Turkish counterattack.

The British plan was modified to take this into account. The two divisions on the British right were to stand on the defensive north of Jerusalem, while the two divisions on the left (74th and 10th Divisions) would launch their attacks as planned on the morning of 27 December.

The Turkish counterattack began on the night of 26/27 December. Its main focus was the hill of Tel el Ful, three miles to the north of Jerusalem, and just east of the road to Nablus. The fierce Turkish attack continued into the afternoon of 27 December but was unable to make any progress against the prepared British troops.

To the west the British attack made much better progress. During 27 December the two divisions on the left advanced 4,000 yards along a six mile front, threatening the right flank of the Turkish counterattack and forcing the Turks back onto the defensive.

On 28 December the entire XX corps joined in the offensive. The Turks were pushed back slowly on the first day of the general offensive, but their resistance soon began to fade, until on 30 December the British were able to advance to their original objective, the Beitin-Nalin line, against very little resistance.

This was the final significant fighting in Palestine until the spring of 1918. The British had outrun their supply lines on the advance from Gaza and needed time to prepare for any new advance, while the Turks had suffered very heavy casualties during the two months since the British attacked at Gaza. The weather also played a part. Heavy rains made any movement difficult, and washed out part of the existing railway.

The day after Xmas. And all is well; yes Em very well. I enjoyed yesterday very well considering the same thing as Ive considered right along. Then again Em, there is no use considering this so Ive sumed it all up and call it a very good Yule Tide. Now aint I some considerer. Well Em, we’ve got to say some thing and considerating will coincide with us about as well as any thing.

Now. Yesterday as Ive said above was Christmas and Santa Claus paid me as welcome a visit as I ever experienced. Yes even considering the days when we were kids (and when I think of them days now they were some pleasant.) And Em, you did more towards this than I could ever tell you. Four letters from you. Well Em it was the darb, thats all. Two cartons of Lucky Strikes and a letter from Red the Shipper, in which he said, that he had heard from three of the boys in France, and that the rest of them were sent South. Also got a package of tobacco from Bill, (my side kick at the shop,) a letter from a sister of one of the boys at the shop (stating that she was sending a package,) and a letter from a party in S.B. All this on Christmas Day.

We had a very good dinner consisting of Turkey, mashed potatoes, carrots, nuts, apples, pie, bread, and coffee. It snowed all day, and there is an inch of this (what does Pa call it?) on the ground now. I can remember when I used to like to see it snow. Im cured Pa, fully cured. Walk, drill, and do nothing but come in contact with snow all day and any one will be cured.

We had quite a reunion Christmas, in that a crowd of old K. Co. boys came over and visited us. Christmas Eve was very jovially spent, and as Ive said above all’s well and we’ve got down to hard work again. Its very cold and snowing most of the time, but we bundle up warm (in the woolen goods that the Red Cross was so kind to supply us with) and go out, dig trenches, work guns, fight dummies with the bayonet and practise the throwing of bombs.

You’ve got to work hard to keep warm, and hard work and cold weather makes a healthy man hungry. The best part of it all is we get enough to eat, at present anyway. Of coarse this won’t always be but, Im not worrying about some thing thats coming. That will take care of itself.

There is a noncomps meeting at 7.45 tonight and Ill have to break in on this letter to attend this but Ill be back as soon as I can and tell you more about myself. Myself understand; nothing in regards to where we are, how we got here or when we will leave. Im taking no chances in crabbing the game. Well Em its twenty five minutes of eight now and I guess Ill gather my trusty disciples, and hike them over to the hut until about nine oclock, when Im planning on being missing to get back here and write as much as I can tonight.

Well Em it was a lecture on sniping. Here I am back again at ten oclock. It was too interesting to leave. It was given by an officer who has been “at it.” It’s a fine moon light night, one that when you walk on the snow, every step is a song. Skweek. Meat for air raids and I wish I could tell you something on this. But Im going to follow the orders, for one word will probably keep this letter from reaching you.

By the way Em Im wrong again one of those letters was from Sadie and it will be the next one I answer. Your letters were dated Nov. 26 and 29th and Dec. 2nd. You open up your letter of the 26th by saying it was awful cold there. I can sympathize with you for it is very cold here. Its funny it was too cold for Henry to get over though Id like to get the chance. So you read the book “Over The Top.” I could explain a lot of this book to you if I was there. Im not in the intelligent squad now though Em. Ive got to be intelligent enough to handle this crew. Im sorry Pa couldnt get Thanksgiving off, but he’s one of those chaps that never seem to weaken. That service pin business is a new stunt to me. If it was in style over here, every one (woman) would have one, some four or five. Im glad Mollie likes her new home and also that she is better.

Your letter of the 29th states that you sent a package for Thanksgiving. I got one, and do not know whether this one is the one you mean or not. Ive only received one anyway, so I hope thats all you sent. Im glad Henry showed up for dinner. Tell Nora that I was asking for her and that Im in hopes to hear that she is better in your next letter.

Yes I thought Pa would laugh on hearing of my new extra duties, and I bet Id get some “Hello Sam” if I was to pass in review. He would get a nod too beleive me. Yes. Bingville Band or the Maine Hayshakers is a very fitting name, but at that there isn’t a better band organized than this same 103rd Inf. It seems good to hear that they all received my mail, for I have so little time to write all I do that Id hate to have them get lost. Im glad to hear Tom is well and that he sends a line home once in a while. I want to say that a mine scrapper isnt the safest job on the water either, but don’t tell Madge this.

We get all the sugar nessessary for our coffee, so this is where Ive got it on you. So the “Old Eighth” has “Gone South.” Do you know that over here when you speak of any body going south it means he is a goner. So the “Old Eighth” might have gone South but there are a lot of us over here that will never forget the deal it got. Steam heat for the National Army what. I wish you could see the way these fellows are putting up for the winter.

I forgot to tell you that I moved. General Cole has moved his Brigade Headquarters into the house we were in so we had to move. As luck would have it we got a house right across the street. The Supply Sgt. is in with us now. Let me tell you about this house. Four rooms. Two up stairs where the Supply Sgt. has all his supplies. Down stairs there is two rooms, the front room is a kitchen where we have our office and do all the company work. In back of this is a bed room in which (now get it) there are two beds built in the wall. OH Em its the darb of a home. In the kitchen we have two stoves and we also got one in the said “chamber.”

Im awfully grateful to Lena for paying my insurance, and if I ever do get a hold of an allotment blank I will make out some thing to her. I remember this Trainor. He is now in one of the letter companies over in the 104th.

Give the Holland’s my very best and tell them Ill write again if I get caught up with what mail Ive got. If I can’t balance the baton on the end of this nose, I think you will agree with me that its not because the baton is too big. Well Em this paper has at least two flags on it, and they are the only thing Ive got to boast of in this letter.

I just went down and got my pictures. I had some taken with out hat or overcoat on, which are not finished yet. Will forward one as soon as they are ready. In the mean time Ill send this note along hoping to here from you, by the next mail. When you look at this picture you will agree with me that Im not the worst treated old dog in the world. Will send some of these pictures to Aunt Madge and Mollie, and every one if they will go around. You see I want to prove to them that what Ive been saying right along that Im not kidding. Ill call you again later Em. So long. Tell Leonard I was asking for him.

1. The demand for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly was a perfectly legitimate part of the programme of revolutionary Social-Democracy, because in a bourgeois republic the Constituent Assembly represents the highest form of democracy and because, in setting up a Pre-parliament, the imperialist republic headed by Kerensky was preparing to rig the elections and violate democracy in a number of ways.

2. While demanding the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, revolutionary Social-Democracy has ever since the beginning of the Revolution of 1917 repeatedly emphasised that a republic of Soviets is a higher form of democracy than the usual bourgeois republic with a Constituent Assembly.

3. For the transition from the bourgeois to the socialist system, for the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Republic of Soviets (of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies) is not only a higher type of democratic institution (as compared with the usual bourgeois republic crowned by a Constituent Assembly), but is the only form capable of securing the most painless transition to socialism.

4. The convocation of the Constituent Assembly in our revolution on the basis of lists submitted in the middle of October 1917 is taking place under conditions which preclude the possibility of the elections to this Constituent Assembly faithfully expressing the will of the people in general and of the working people in particular.

5. Firstly, proportional representation results in a faithful expression of the will of the people only when the party lists correspond to the real division of the people according to the party groupings reflected in those lists. In our case, however, as is well known, the party which from May to October had the largest number of followers among the people, and especially among the peasants—the Socialist-Revolutionary Party—came out with united election lists for the Constituent Assembly in the middle of October 1917, but split in November 1917, after the elections and before the Assembly met.

For this reason, there is not, nor can there be, even a formal correspondence between the will of the mass of the electors and the composition of the elected Constituent Assembly.

6. Secondly, a still more important, not a formal nor legal, but a socio-economic, class source of the discrepancy between the will of the people, and especially the will of the working classes, on the one hand, and the composition of the Constituent Assembly, on the other, is due to the elections to the Constituent Assembly having taken place at a time when the overwhelming majority of tile people could not yet know the full scope and significance of the October, Soviet, proletarian-peasant revolution, which began on October 25, 1917, i.e., after the lists of candidates for the Constituent Assembly had been submitted.

7. The October Revolution is passing through successive stages of development before our very eyes, winning power for the Soviets and wresting political rule from the bourgeoisie and transferring it to the proletariat and poor peasantry.

8. It began with the victory of October 24-25 in the capital, when the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, the vanguard of the proletarians and of the most politically active section of the peasants, gave a majority to the Bo!shevik Party and put it in power.

9. Then, in the course of November and December, the revolution spread to the entire army and peasants, this being expressed first of all in the deposition of the old leading bodies (army committees, gubernia peasant committees, the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russia Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies, etc.)—which expressed the superseded, compromising phase of the revolution, its bourgeois, and not proletarian, phase, and which were therefore inevitably bound to disappear under the pressure of the deeper and broader masses of the people—and in the election of new leading bodies in their place.

10. This mighty movement of the exploited people for the reconstruction of the leading bodies of their organisations has not ended even now, in the middle of December 1917, and the Railwaymen’s Congress, which is still in session, represents one of its stages.

11. Consequently, the grouping of the class forces in Russia in the course of their class struggle is in fact assuming, in November and December 1917, a form differing in principle from the one that the party lists of candidates for the Constituent Assembly compiled in the middle of October 1917 could have reflected.

12. Recent events in the Ukraine (partly also in Finland and Byelorussia, as well as in the Caucasus) point similarly to a regrouping of class forces which is taking place in the process of the struggle between the bourgeois nationalism of the Ukrainian Bada, the Finnish Diet, etc., on the one hand, and Soviet power, the proletarian-peasant revolution in each of these national republics, on the other.

13. Lastly, the civil war which was started by the Cadet-Kaledin counter-revolutionary revolt against the Soviet authorities, against the workers’ and peasants’ government, has finally brought the class struggle to a head and has destroyed every chance of setting in a formally democratic way the very acute problems with which history has confronted the peoples of Russia, and in the first place her working class and peasants.

14. Only the complete victory of the workers and peasants over the bourgeois and landowner revolt (as expressed in the Cadet-Kaledin movement), only the ruthless military suppression of this revolt of the slave-owners can really safeguard the proletarian-peasant revolution. The course of events and the development of the class struggle in the revolution have resulted in the slogan "All Power to the Constituent Assembly!"—which disregards the gains of the workers’ and peasants’ revolution, which disregards Soviet power, which disregards the decisions of the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, of the Second All-Russia Congress of Peasants’ Deputies, etc.—becoming in fact the slogan of the Cadets and the Kaledinites and of their helpers. The entire people are now fully aware that the Constituent Assembly, if it parted ways with Soviet power, would inevitably be doomed to political extinction.

15. One of the particularly acute problems of national life is the problem of peace. A really revolutionary struggle for peace began in Russia only after the victory of the October 25 Revolution, and the first fruits of this victory were the publication of the secret treaties, the conclusion of an armistice, and the beginning of open negotiations for a general peace without annexations and indemnities.

Only now are the broad sections of the people actually receiving a chance fully and openly to observe the policy of revolutionary struggle for peace and to study its results.

At the time of the elections to the Constituent Assembly the mass of the people had no such chance.

It is clear that the discrepancy between the composition of the elected Constituent Assembly and the actual will of the people on the question of terminating the war is inevitable from this point of view too.

16. The result of all the above-mentioned circumstances taken together is that the Constituent Assembly, summoned on the basis of the election lists of the parties existing prior to the proletarian-peasant revolution under the rule of the bourgeoisie, must inevitably clash with the will and interests of the working and exploited classes which on October 25 began the socialist revolution against the bourgeoisie. Naturally, the interests of this revolution stand higher than the formal rights of the Constituent Assembly, even if those formal rights were not undermined by the absence in the law on the Constituent Assembly of a provision recognising the right of the people to recall their deputies and hold new elections at any moment.

17. Every direct or indirect attempt to consider the question of the Constituent Assembly from a formal, legal point of view, within the framework of ordinary bourgeois democracy and disregarding the class struggle and civil war, would be a betrayal of the proletariat’s cause, and the adoption of the bourgeois standpoint. The revolutionary Social-Democrats are duty bound to warn all and sundry against this error, into which a few Bolshevik leaders, who have been unable to appreciate the significance of the October uprising and the tasks of the dictatorship of the proletariat, have strayed.

18. The only chance of securing a painless solution to the crisis which has arisen owing to the divergence between the elections to the Constituent Assembly, on the one hand, and the will of the people and the interests of the working and exploited classes, on the other, is for the people to exercise as broadly and as rapidly as possible the right to elect the members of the Constituent Assembly anew, and for the Constituent Assembly to accept the law of the Central Executive Committee on these new elections, to proclaim that it unreservedly recognises Soviet power, the Soviet revolution, and its policy on the questions of peace, the land and workers’ control, and to resolutely join the camp of the enemies of the Cadet-Kaledin counter-revolution.

19. Unless these conditions are fulfilled, the crisis in connection with the Constituent Assembly can be settled only in a revolutionary way, by Soviet power adopting the most energetic, speedy, firm and determined revolutionary measures against the Cadet-Kaledin counter-revolution, no matter behind what slogans and institutions (even participation in the Constituent Assembly) this counter-revolution may hide. Any attempt to tie the hands of Soviet power in this struggle would be tantamount to aiding counterrevolution.

THE CASE FOR INDIA - The Presidential Address Delivered by Annie Besant at the Thirty-Second Indian National Congress Held at Calcutta 26th December 1917

FELLOW-DELEGATES AND FRIENDS,

Everyone who has preceded me in this Chair has rendered his thanks in fitting terms for the gift which is truly said to be the highest that India has it in her power to bestow. It is the sign of her fullest love, trust, and approval, and the one whom she seats in that chair is, for his year of service, her chosen leader. But if my predecessors found fitting words for their gratitude, in what words can I voice mine, whose debt to you is so overwhelmingly greater than theirs? For the first time in Congress history, you have chosen as your President one who, when your choice was made, was under the heavy ban of Government displeasure, and who lay interned as a person dangerous to public safety. While I was humiliated, you crowned me with honour; while I was slandered, you believed in my integrity and good faith; while I was crushed under the heel of bureaucratic power, you acclaimed me as your leader; while I was silenced and unable to defend myself, you defended me, and won for me release. I was proud to serve in lowliest fashion, but you lifted me up and placed me before the world as your chosen representative. I have no words with which to thank you, no eloquence with which to repay my debt. My deeds must speak for me, for words are too poor. I turn your gift into service to the Motherland; I consecrate my life anew to her in worship by action. All that I have and am, I lay on the Altar of the Mother, and together we shall cry, more by service than by words: VANDE MATARAM.

There is, perhaps, one value in your election of me in this crisis of India's destiny, seeing that I have not the privilege to be Indian-born, but come from that little island in the northern seas which has been, in the West, the builder-up of free institutions. The Aryan emigrants, who spread over the lands of Europe, carried with them the seeds of liberty sown in their blood in their Asian cradle-land. Western historians trace the self-rule of the Saxon villages to their earlier prototypes in the East, and see the growth of English liberty as up-springing from the Aryan root of the free and self-contained village communities.

Its growth was crippled by Norman feudalism there, as its millennia-nourished security here was smothered by the East India Company. But in England it burst its shackles and nurtured a liberty-loving people and a free Commons' House. Here, it similarly bourgeoned out into the Congress activities, and more recently into those of the Muslim League, now together blossoming into Home Rule for India. The England of Milton, Cromwell, Sydney, Burke, Paine, Shelley, Wilberforce, Gladstone; the England that sheltered Mazzini, Kossuth, Kropotkin, Stepniak, and that welcomed Garibaldi; the England that is the enemy of tyranny, the foe of autocracy, the lover of freedom, that is the England I would fain here represent to you to-day. To-day, when India stands erect, no suppliant people, but a Nation, self-conscious, self-respecting, determined to be free; when she stretches out her hand to Britain and offers friendship not subservience; co-operation not obedience; to-day let me: western-born but in spirit eastern, cradled in England but Indian by choice and adoption: let me stand as the symbol of union between Great Britain and India: a union of hearts and free choice, not of compulsion: and therefore of a tie which cannot be broken, a tie of love and of mutual helpfulness, beneficial to both Nations and blessed by God.

The elections that have been forced upon us by our unscrupulous Junkers, led by their Welsh demagogue, are over. As to the results of our B.S.P. candidatures, we await them with philosophic calm, knowing full well that if the present wave of organised revolt does not surge into Westminster and sweep the babbling politicians and lying lawyers off their feet, why the next one, which will have gathered strength in a year or two, will do so. That this recent election was a long-planned and deeply-laid scheme on the part of the enemy is apparent in the working of the women’s vote, and in the cunning displayed in rushing forward the polling day before the return of the soldiers and sailors. It has been well known for years that the women municipal voters were the backbone of ignorance and reaction; they were therefore carefully selected as parliamentary voters, and to them was added the great mass of married women whose husbands are ratepayers. All the young, better educated, more evolved and class-conscious women were carefully excluded from the ballot box at the important election which was to decide which class was to reconstruct after the capitalists’ war had laid the world in ruins. Again, what chance had our soldiers and sailors in the ice-bound ports and wastes of extreme Northern Russia, in the sandy deserts of Mesopotamia, of Egypt, or of Palestine, of weighing up the issues on which this recent election has been fought? How can they in those remote parts of the world have access to the literature written by their class, for their class, in order to refute the cheap lying promises and rhetoric of the master and profiteering class? Take the question of Housing, which Mr. Lloyd George in each one of his speeches has dangled before the eyes of the women voters more especially. Do either the millions of returning soldiers or their wives realise that there can be no settling of the housing question as long as the land is in the hands of private owners? The Russian peasants realised that and made the socialisation of land the basis of their demand. After that came the socialisation of other things (such as the railways, canals, factories, mines, and workshops) essential to life of the people; and thus, and thus only, could the housing question be settled in Great Britain. If rent had just to be paid for the land, and profit paid on the iron, the wood, the cement, the bricks, the tiles to be used in the construction of the necessary houses, the rents would be assessed at a rate beyond what the workers can pay, as is the case in the Garden City schemes. The soldier has fought for his country, has fought for his home. He must have his home and his garden if he desires it; but he must have it without bringing in profits to landlords or shareholders. Again, in the matter of education, Mr. Lloyd George has in electioneering speeches gushed about the children of the workers receiving the same education as the children of the rich. None can know better than the Prime Minister that such an educational state of things is impossible as long as all privilege lies with the possessing classes, and all the richest educational endowments are in their hands. Why, those special privileges were, in the Representation of the People Act, made doubly secure by retaining parliamentary representation for the Universities, and giving these Universities a special polling day, so that Plural Privilege Voting could be exercised. Until we can really democratise our education, so that no teacher in Council Schools shall be called upon to teach a class of more than twenty children, and until those children are maintained by the community in a state of health that enables them to receive instruction profitably, we shall not have begun to “make the world safe for democracy.”

It is quite within the bounds of possibility that the flatulent advertisements in the columns of the “Daily Mail,” wherein Mr. Lloyd George claims support at the polls for himself and his profiteering friends on the grounds that “he has won the war, and given votes to women,” may pass the Censor more easily than does the literature of the Labour Party, and that on the Murman coast and in the Black Sea our soldiers and sailors may at times mistake fiction for facts. It is as well, therefore, that they should be enabled to read the opinions of some, on this question of “winning the war,” who cannot be suspected of Socialism, and who yet do not support Mr. George in his assertion that he has won the war. Lord Mersey, when taking the chair for Mr. Asquith in June of this year, said: “No one could predict when peace would come, but even then many years must elapse before we should be able to say who was the winner of the war.” And Lord Buckmaster is reported to have said in a speech at the National Liberal Club: “The real winners of the war will be determined ten or twenty years afterwards, and they will be the nation who will be best able to face the growing discontent of a disillusioned people, to ward off growing famine, and to save their people from the universal bankruptcy to which Europe is speeding every day with increasing pace.” Therefore, in the opinion of those who are not vote-catching demagogues, the war is not yet won, the nations of the world are threatened with “growing famine and bankruptcy,” and the people generally are disillusioned. It. is as well to make a note for future reference of these interesting points, as these are the eruptive troubles that are supposed specially to afflict countries which have opted for Bolshevism! As to Mr. Lloyd George’s claim that he gave the vote to women, and therefore deserves their gratitude, our reply is that just as the soldiers fought to win the war, so the women fought to win their political freedom. They have neither of them yet finished the fight, because the soldiers have not yet obtained their homes for which they fought, and only some women have been enfranchised; and their reply to Mr. Lloyd George is: “Thank you for nothing.”

Meanwhile our work of education, organisation, and agitation grows ever more and more strenuous. We Marxians hold the interpretation which alone can help the people to crystallise their scattered atoms of rebellion into intelligent, ordered, insistent demand, backed up by political and industrial action. Never before have the capitalists provided such favourable conditions for the spread of industrial education and agitation. For the prosecution of their war they have brought labour from the ends of the earth, and the ferment of the life and death struggle of the masses, fighting body to body for the interests of their masters and oppressors, has taught the people what nothing else could have taught them that if life is to be worth living it is worth controlling, and that henceforth neither Emperors, Kings, Politicians, nor Priests should control the destinies of the workers, but that the workers themselves, through their own Soviet Councils, elected solely by the workers, should take and hold for the benefit of the whole community the power that administers all things which are necessary for the life of the community. It will then be not any one nation which has won the war, but it will be the workers of the world who have won it, and who at the same time have won the world for the workers.

Sidney Reilly's reports from South Russia, December 1918-March 1919.John Ainsworth

Allied forces actually were present in Sevastopol at the
time, with troops of the French 176th Regiment commanded by Colonel Ruillier arriving on 26 December
1918 to replace 500 Royal Marines who had been landed there earlier, on 1 December. But these troops
were never in any position to play the decisive anti-Bolshevik role advocated for them by Reilly. Indeed,
in the ultimate testament to the frailty of their position, the French Command in Sevastopol entered into
negotiations with the Bolsheviks in April 1919, to allow for the evacuation by 30 April of all French
forces in the city without interference from the Red Army.

The First World War was drawing to a close in the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe. Austro-Hungarian forces had been forced to withdraw from Albania in early November 1918. Shkodra was occupied by an Allied garrison under French command, that included a British detachment. The situation was chaotic and Albania's very survival as an independent country was in question. Brigade General E. F. Phillips, head of the British Military Mission in Albania, arrived in Shkodra at the end of December 1918 and descibed the situation in the country as he found it.

On arrival at Scutari [Shkodra] on the 26th December 1918 I found the general situation with regard to the town far more satisfactory than I had expected. The people are quiet, the condition of affairs between the Christians and Mahomedans on a better basis than when I knew the place so well. Food is dear but plentiful, trade is developing; the middlemen have made fortunes if the upper and lower classes have suffered to a certain extent.

EYES OF THE ARMY: The Life and Letters of World War I Aerial Observer Lt. Mortimer M. Lawrence

December 26, 1918
104th Aero Squadron,
American E.F., France,

Dear Folks:-

Now that Christmas is all over I think I can sit down and write you a little about what happened.

As I cabled on the 22nd I received the box Okeh and in good condition. I can’t begin to tell you how much I did enjoy its contents and the fact that on Christmas I had something from home. The box was dandy and I sure appreciate all the love and good wishes and everything else that went in it. Naturally the thing that made the biggest hit was the candy, for it is about a year since I have tasted any like it. The cigarettes, too, hit the right spot. I certainly thank you all many times for the time and trouble you took in packing it.

You no doubt saw the belt and probably admired it too, for it sure is a beauty. The little cigars from Mr. Jacobs were fine and I shall write him soon.

Our Christmas was a good one and won’t be forgotten in a hurry. Much to our surprise it began to snow on the evening before and we did have a somewhat white Christmas. Our dinner was a dandy – chicken soup (canned), roast goose, mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, salad, gravy, pie and coffee. We had a jazz band and quartette (colored) to entertain us. We finished dinner about three o’clock and then sent to one of the nearby hospitals for some nurses and at five o’clock turned the mess hall in to a dance hall and went to it. The dance lasted until eleven when everybody went home. During the course of the evening we had punch and also some other eats in the way of coffee and sandwiches, etc.

Everybody had a fine time and we may have another party for New Year’s, for all of our visitors were enthusiastic over coming again and soon.

Monday and Tuesday before Christmas I was trying to have (or not to have) the Flu and so I wisely remained in bed and had the Surgeon come down to see me. He put me thru a course of real sprouts and when the big day arrove [sp] I was in shape to have as much fun out of it as any one else. I sure did, too.

There isn’t anything to write except that the climate here has turned nasty and today you ought to hear the wind howl up here on the hill. Down in town, which is in the valley, it isn’t quite so bad, but at that it whistles some in my chimney when I am in front of the fireplace.

I have here a little bit of verse which was written by one of the sergeants in our headquarters. If I don’t forget it I’ll put it in when I address this. I think it is rather good.

Hope you are all well and had a Merry Christmas. It looks as tho I might be home before so many months.

Lots of love to all,

Mortimer.

Christmas Eve in the A.E.F.
1-9-1-8

It’s Christmas Eve in the barracks,
The difference is hard to tell,
But somehow our eyes betray us
With that look we know so well.

This bird with the heavy eyebrows,
Gazing upwards through the smoke,
Thinks of his dear old mother,
What else could those eyes betoke?

The “Kid” with the extra chevron,
Worn under his puggy nose,
Is studying a half torn picture
Of a girl in High-school clothes.

Old Grouchy there by the fireplace,
His eyes on the floor below,
Pictures the little wife he left
In each dying ember glow.

A dozen or more are writing,
It’s easy to read each mind,
As they pen their little love-notes
To the girls they left behind.

Of course we try to fool ‘em
And act as if we didn’t care,
But always someone starts it
With “Gee, I wish I was there.”

One bird comes in with a good one,
That “Santy Claus wouldn’t be here,
For the very simple reason
That Corcoran had his deer.”

A few forget their troubles
In refreshments that sparkle or foam,
But tomorrow they will suffer
From that “almost bustin’ dome.”

Of one thing all are thinking,
You can feel it in the air.
It all expressed so simply in
“Next year we’ll all be THERE.”

With apologies to Cpl. Guinn and Longfellow - WEM

WVM Curator: Mortimer's letter is very instructive of the types of food and entertainment enjoyed by he and his fellow servicemen for the Christmas holiday. Descriptions such as these help future historians better understand everything from what people ate to how they celebrated special occasions.

1. DUCHY OF CIESZYN SILESIA
This area was declared for Poland on 28 October 1918. The eastern area was awarded to Poland by the Council of Ambassadors on 28 July 1920 from Austria. The western area was annexed by Poland from Czechoslovakia on 1 October 1938.

2. WESTERN GALICIA
This area was taken over by the Polish Liquidation Commission (PKL) from 28 October 1918 to 10 January 1919. This area belonged to Austria.

3. AUSTRIAN ZONE OF OCCUPATION OF KINGDOM OF POLAND
This area was subject to Polish Provisional Government at Lublin from 4 November 1918. The area was taken from Russia.

4. GERMAN ZONE OF OCCUPATION OF KINGDOM OF POLAND
The German Army evacuated this area on 11 November 1918. The Regency Council then handed over this area to the government of J. Piłsudski on 14 November 1918.

5. EASTERN GALICIA
The League of Nations awarded this area to Poland in 1923.

6. GRAND DUCHY OF POSEN
Following the Poznań Revolt, 26 December 1918 to 16 February 1919, this area seceded from Prussia.

7. TREATY OF VERSAILLES
Additional territory from the Grand Duchy of Posen was awarded to Poland and was incorporated 20 January 1920 by the Treaty of Versailles.

8. JANOWO, NAPROMEK, GRUNWALD
These villages were awarded to Poland following the East Prussian Plebiscite on 23 July 1920.

9. DRAWA
This area was awarded in part to Poland by the Council of Ambassadors on 28 July 1920.

10. SPISZ
This area was also awarded in part to Poland by the Council of Ambassadors on 28 July 1920.

11. MIDDLE LITHUANIA
This area was occupied by the Polish Army on 9 October 1920 and was incorporated into Poland by referendum in March 1922.

12. EASTERN BORDERLANDS
This area was occupied by the German Army until February 1919. It was awarded to Poland by the Treaty of Riga on 18 March 1921.

13. UPPER SILESIA
The south-eastern part of the Plebiscite area was awarded to Poland on 20 October 1921 by the Council of Ambassadors.

Sold to New York - On December 26, 1919, Frazee sold Ruth to the New York Yankees. Popular legend has it that Frazee sold Ruth and several other of his best players to finance a Broadway play, No, No, Nanette (which, though it actually didn't debut until 1925, did have origins in a December 1919 play, My Lady Friends). The truth is not so simple, as Frazee had another financial concern: Babe Ruth.

After the 1919 season, Ruth demanded a raise to $20,000 ($220,000 in current dollar terms)—double his previous salary. However, Frazee refused, and Ruth responded by letting it be known he wouldn't play until he got his raise, suggesting that he may retire to undertake other profitable ventures.

Frazee finally lost patience with Ruth, and decided to trade him. However, he was effectively limited to two trading partners—the Chicago White Sox and the then-moribund Yankees. The other five clubs rejected his deals out of hand under pressure from American League president Ban Johnson, who never liked Frazee and was actively trying to remove him from ownership of the Red Sox.[34] The White Sox offered Shoeless Joe Jackson $60,000 ($660,000 in current dollar terms), but Yankees owners Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston offered an all-cash deal—$100,000 ($1,100,000 in current dollar terms).